09 - AVR 13 - Transcr. docu Verd. Ment.

The following programme is a
documentary that is based on the book by Gonçalo Amaral, the former
PJ inspector who investigated the disappearance of Madeleine McCann,
in the Algarve. His version of the events is repudiated by Maddie’s
parents, who continue to defend that this is an abduction case. The
criminal process that was conducted by the Portuguese authorities
ended with the archiving of the inquiry, a decision that was
contested by Gonçalo Amaral. More than pointing out culprits, a task
that belongs to justice, the broadcast of this documentary is
destined to contribute for light to be shed on a case that remains an
unsolved mystery, for almost two years, and that elements are given
to help the public opinion to understand it.

GA : My name is Gonçalo Amaral. I’ve
been an investigator with the Polícia Judiciária for 27 years. I
coordinated the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine
McCann, on the 3rd of May 2007. During the following 50 minutes, I
will prove that the child was not abducted, and that she died in the
holiday apartment in Praia da Luz. Discover the whole truth about
what happened that day – a death that many people want to cover up.

Clip Kate MC : (reading) We would like
to say a few words to the person who is with Madeleine or has been
with Madeleine. Madeleine is a beautiful, bright, funny and caring
little girl. She is so special. Please, please do not hurt her,
please do not scare her, please tell us where to find her or put her
in a place of safety and let somebody tell us where she is. We beg
you to let Madeleine come home. We need our Madeleine, Sean and
Amelie need Madeleine and Madeleine needs us. Please give our little
girl back. Por favor devolva a nossa menina.

Narrateur : On the 3rd of May 2007, a
child that was sleeping with her siblings was abducted. This is the
version of the crime that we got used to accepting as the only
possible one. But is it the true one? Or does this version hide a
crime that many want to conceal?

GA : There is a kind of need to stifle
the case, to silence the case. I remember that several people were
affected, English policemen are forbidden from speaking out, other
witnesses like Martin Smith are somewhat afraid, and several persons…
This is a case where some people are still afraid or they are even
prevented from speaking. (1)

The Reconstitution

Nar. : What we are preparing has never been
done before. We took the former PJ coordinator, Gonçalo Amaral, to
the crime scene, to show what happened to Madeleine McCann. This
reconstitution is going to allow us to understand who told the truth,
and who didn’t. We are going to find out what happened on the night
that Maddie disappeared forever. Strangely, the judicial
investigation was never able to carry out the reconstitution of what
happened.

GA : The reconstitution wasn’t
carried out because there were some who defended that would be equal
to considering the family to be suspects, as well as the risk of
flight. Since the beginning, the Polícia Judiciária was pressured
not to investigate this case like any other case. There was media
exposure, a political and diplomatic climate that made the
investigation much more difficult. (2)

Nar. : Madeleine McCann was only
days away from her 4th birthday when she disappeared. The last time
that she was seen in public was at 5.30 pm on the 3rd of May 2007. Her mother, Kate McCann, picked her up at the crèche. The exit
record shows the time. At the same time, the father, Gerald McCann,
played tennis only a few hundreds of metres away. (3) The tennis court
timesheet and his statement to the police confirm that Gerald only
left at 7 pm. On the same afternoon, the family’s friends had tea
at the Paraíso restaurant. The cctv camera images prove that the men
left the restaurant at 6.13 pm, and the women left 15 minutes
later. One of them, David Payne, met up with Gerald McCann at the
tennis court. According to Payne’s statement to the Polícia
Judiciária, he asked him where Kate was, and then headed for the
apartment that had been rented by the McCann family, where he arrived
at around 6.30 pm.

In later questionings, the testimonies
diverge. Gerald McCann says that David Payne stayed at the McCanns’
apartment for 30 minutes. His wife, Kate, guarantees it was only 30
seconds. At that time, Kate was bathing the twins and Madeleine. (4) It
was shortly after 8.40 pm that the English nine friends went for
dinner at the Tapas bar. The restaurant is approximately 50 m away,
as the crow flies, from the apartments where 8 children remained
alone. (5) In apartment 5A, Madeleine McCann and the twins, Amelie and
Sean, were sleeping. At around 10 pm, Kate McCann, Maddie’s
mother, raised the alarm. Maddie was not in the room. At around 10.40
pm, the GNR in Lagos received a phone call, saying that a little
girl had disappeared from the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz.According to the testimony of the Ocean
Club’s manager, when the GNR patrol arrived on location, the
child’s father threw himself at the officers’ feet, like a
praying Arab, completely out of control over his daughter’s
disappearance. The same scene was repeated, according to the
officers, in the couple’s bedroom.

GA : It was past midnight when the GNR
warned the Polícia Judiciária. I was immediately informed and took
the appropriate measures. Searches were carried out in the region,
the Spanish authorities were warned, and the borders were controlled.
The largest search operation ever to be carried out in Portugal was
organised. (6)

Nar. : During several days,
hundreds of officers from the GNR, firemen, volunteers, and members
of the Polícia Judiciária thoroughly searched over 200 km2.
A gigantic search operation. No search in Portugal had ever included
such means and so many people. Everything is checked, and checked
again. The borders are watched, all sorts of vehicles are searched.
The effort does not succeed. The child doesn’t appear.

Guilhermino Encarnação:(directeur de la PJ pour l'Algarve) Until we
have evidence that in fact the worst may have happened to her, we
continue to think that she may be – that she may be alive. As you
know, under the Portuguese juridical order, there is not only abduction for ransom. If someone takes a person for a sexual act, that
is also an abduction. It is on that basis that we are hopeful.

GA : During the first week, we
interviewed hundreds of persons. The family, the friends, the
resort’s employees, and all the persons who had contact with the
child. From this first batch of testimonies, we obtained an outline
of what happened that night.

Nar. : It was on the back of one of
Madeleine’s books that, on the night of the crime, family and
friends wrote down the collective versions of that same night; the
draft was used to match the depositions from the nine British friends
about what happened. According to that version, which will later be
confirmed during questioning, at 8.45 pm the McCanns enter the
restaurant, and then the other couples arrive. Dinner evolves
normally. Given the fact that the children are alone in the
apartments, the families take turns in checking the children. At
around 9.05 pm, Matt checks the windows of the various apartments,
and finds everything quiet and the windows closed. Between 9.05 and
9.10 pm., Gerald McCann goes to the apartment, asserts that he
entered through the front door and enters the children’s bedroom.
Everything seems well to him. At a later point in time, Gerald will
say that he sensed that a stranger was inside the room. (7) When he
leaves, he meets English tv producer Jeremy W, who walks his child to
fall asleep. He remains talking to him under the apartment’s living
room window. At around 9.10 pm, Jane Tanner goes to check her
children, and to check the other apartments. On her way to 5D, she
passes Gerald and Jeremy. Jane will later tell the authorities that
she saw a stranger carrying a child in his arms, on rua Agostinho da
Silva.

At 9.30, Russell and Matt check all the
apartments. Matt looks through the door of the McCann children’s
bedroom. From that standpoint, he can only see the twins. Russell
remains to take care of his sick daughter. At 9.50 pm, Russell
returns to the Tapas. (8)

On the same night, on the other side of
Aldeia da Luz, the Smith family – four adults and five children –
have just paid for their dinner at the Dolphins restaurant. The
credit card receipt was clocked at 9.27 pmon the 3rd of May 2007.
The Smiths go out for a drink at Kelly’s bar. They don’t take
long. It’s around 9.50 pm when they start walking towards the
Estrela da Luz resort. (9) When they cross rua de 25 de Abril, arriving
at rua da Escola Primária, they have just walked 30 metres and they
cross paths with a man who carries a child in his arms.

It is just after 22 pm when Kate goes
to her children’s bedroom using the shorter route, entering the
apartment through the sliding window, and sees Madeleine is missing.
(10) She asserts that the bedroom’s window and shutters had been opened.
She drops everything, leaves the twins, who continue sleeping, in a
room with an open window, and heads for the Tapas bar, to raise the
alarm.

GA : This is where part of Kate
McCann’s behaviour on that night becomes incomprehensible. Instead
of stopping right here, and shouting out to the people who were at
the restaurant, where her husband was, what she does is climb down
these stairs, and walk a distance that is certainly twice as much as
the distance from here to the restaurant, which is located
approximately 50 metres from here, as the crow flies. (5) When she arrived
there, she cried out “We let her down”, which is a medical term
that is often used in medicine, “she’s gone”, and then everyone
came running and everyone used the entrance on this side of the
apartment again. (11) GA fait ici une double erreur ;a) personne n'a dit que Kate avait crié "we let her down" (nous l'avons laissée en rade) et b) "let down" ne signifie pas "être parti", qui est assez universellement une métaphore pour "mourir" (et non dans le seul milieu médical). Ce que Kate MC a dit c'est they've taken her ("on l'a prise"), corrigé plus tard par ses soins lorsque les forumeurs se demandèrent, à tort, qui était ce "they".

Nar. : There were many contradictions.
The most evident one was that someone was inside that room, when
Gerald went in.

GA : If he didn’t enter, he just
peeked through the door, that also has to be taken into account with
what the abductor may have thought, if there was an abductor at all.
An abductor cannot be certain that a father wouldn’t enter the
room, because he would be discovered. Therefore, standing behind the
door was practically impossible, physically that is not possible. He
didn’t fit behind the door, and the wardrobes were blocked by the
cots. But given the drama that the family was living, and the climate
of commotion, we preferred not to make them suspects. (12)

Nar. : The first contradiction is
related to the distance. Everyone involved, except for Kate, stated
that when they went to check on the children, they used the
apartments’ front doors. That meant walking over 100 metres more
than they would walk if they entered through the sliding windows.
Only the McCanns confirmed that they hadn’t locked that window,
justifying that they could see the window from the Tapas. (13)

GA : It is incomprehensible that they
would walk over 100 metres more to check on the children, when there
was a shorter route. Maddie’s father said that, when he went to
check on his children, he was in a hurry to use the toilet. Still, he
took the longer route. (14)

Nar. : Let’s check the map. The
yellow line is the route that is walked until the sliding window. The
red line is the route that all of the parents state they took –
approximately twice as long.

GA : This preoccupation from the nine
English people only shows that they were afraid of being accused for
leaving their children in a dangerous situation.

Nar. : In fact, these contradictions
could be justified merely with the need of the English families to
demonstrate that the children were fully safe. According to a
Portuguese lawyer, who is experienced in working with several English
clients, the behaviour may be justified by the fear of being accused
of abandoning the children to danger, a crime that is severely
punished by UK laws.

Artur Rego :(lawyer) Having been
left by their parents, exposed to situations of risk and danger that
they, in their young age, wouldn’t be able to protect themselves
from, and to confront and to resolve on their own, is considered to
be a serious risk and serious and neglectful behaviour from the
parents. (15)

Second Contradiction : the sightings

Nar. : The second relevant
contradiction is given by Jane Tanner’s deposition, who states she
saw the abductor. One cannot understand how Jane Tanner passes Gerald
and Jeremy W, and sees a man carrying a child, with both of them
failing to see her and the abductor.The only possible explanation for
them not seeing her is given by her husband’s deposition, who says
that she saw the abductor when she was returning from the apartment,
and not when she was going there. It was possible for her to see
Jeremy and Gerald without any of them seeing her, but only if she was
coming from the back of the apartment, using the sliding window. (16)In
any case, the detailed identification that she gives of a possible
abductor is impossible. See with your own eyes.Jane Tanner asserts that she clearly
saw, at this distance and with this lack of light, five aspects:First: she saw a dark-haired man, aged 35 to 40, slender, with dark hair falling down his neck.Second: that man wore linen trousers colored between beige and golden.Third: he wore a duffy jacket, but not as thick.Fourth: he wore black classical shoes.Fifth: the man walked in a hurry, with a child laying on his outstretched arms, a position that is more likely for a statue than for a person who walks carrying a child.

GA : Jane’s statements were the basis
for the abduction theory. But for us, and later on, for the English
police, they had doubtful value. How was it possible to see so much
as such a distance, and under that light? How was it possible for
Gerald and Jeremy not to see Jane, or the abductor? (17)

Nar. : This sighting has another
problem: Jane saw the alleged abductor crossing rua Agostinho da Silva, and less than 30 minutes later, the Smith family also sees a
man carrying a child, on rua da Escola Primária, on the other side
of the village, and walking into the opposite direction of the man
that Jane had seen. (18)

GA : We have two sightings of potential
abductors. The problem is that the Smiths’ sighting doesn’t
confirm Jane Tanner’s vision, in its time and its direction. The
man that is seen by the Smiths is on the other side of the village.
He is heading for the beach area, carrying the child against his
chest and not on outstretched arms. But given his physical look, they
could be referring to the same person. In a while, we’ll see to
whom, and who is lying.

Third Contradiction :the window

Nar. : The third contradiction in the
testimonies is revealed to us by the window. If at 9.20 pm. Jane
sees the abductor with the child, and Kate, upon noticing that
Madeleine has disappeared, notices that the window to the children’s
bedroom had been fully opened, why did Russell and Matt, who checked
the apartments after 9.20, fail to see the open window? This is
completely impossible. (19)

GA : The window is proof of the
truthfulness of the testimonies. If the little girl was abducted by
the man that Jane says she saw at 9.20 pm, then the window was open
from that moment on.Matthew says that he was inside the
apartment and didn’t see the open window. This leads us to conclude
that the window was only opened after the pseudo-abduction. (20)

Journaliste: Over 350 leads
were followed. The Polícia Judiciária says that the next few hours
may bring new developments.Robert Murat is made an arguido after a
long interrogation at the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão.

Olegário de Sousa : (OPJ chargé des RP) A male
individual, aged 33 and a resident in the area of the events has been
made an arguido. He was questioned as such, and no evidence has been
collected that could justify his detention and further judicial
questioning.

GA : The journalist suspected him, but
we didn’t follow what the journalist said. We followed the analysis
of the facts. The facts were analysed, what actually had happened,
and we followed a testimony, a testimony that had to be weakened in
order to advance the abduction theory. (21)Jane Tanner’s testimony.
Because otherwise, the abduction theory died right there. The major
foundation for the abduction was what that witness had seen: a man
carrying a child, walking into the direction of Robert Murat’s
house. Maybe people don’t know, but the search at Robert Murat’s
house takes place on a Monday morning, and on Sunday evening, we’re
in a meeting with the Public Ministry, with the prosecutor, with the
judge, me and Dr Luís Neves, we’re at the court house while
diligences are being carried out in Praia da Luz. Diligences to
confirm the suspicion against Robert Murat. And Mrs Jane Tanner is
placed inside a police surveillance vehicle, several people walk by,
policemen, people that Mrs Jane Tanner had never seen before, and Mr
Robert Murat among them, and she says that from the way he walks, he
is the person that was carrying the child. (22)

Nar. :In fact, Jane Tanner’s memory
progressively improves as time goes by. The first e-fit that she
helps to draw is a vague sketch. She later makes a positive
identification of Robert Murat as the man that she saw that night.
Several months later, she participates in a new e-fit, now
miraculously remembering every facial trace of a man that is very
different from the Murat that she recognised earlier on. (23)Another
document that weighed in at incriminating Robert Murat was a
psychological profile by English experts, which in very general
traces stated that his voluntary attitude during the days that
followed the crime, helping the investigators and the family, could
be the mask of a criminal.

Eduardo Moss : (psychologist)These
are either theoretical pre-suppositions, or banalities. It’s
obvious that they start with statistical analyses, we could call them
epidemiological, out of a population, numerous types of behaviours
which could prompt the suspicion, a greater or smaller suspicion, on
an individual. And nothing more.

The Global Media Phenomenon

Clip Cristiano Ronaldo : (Football
Player) We’re all very sad about what happened to Madeleine
McCann. Please, if someone has any kind of information, let us know.

Clip Luís Filipe Scolari : (Trainer)Pray a special prayer, pray at least one Hail Mary all over the
country, for Our Lady of Fátima to enlighten our authorities so they
can find that little girl.

Nar. : Time went by. The abduction
leads led into a blind alley. The family itself started considering
the possibility that Maddie was dead.

Stalemate in the Investigation

GA : The first signs of death come from
the family. Exterior signs. We had already considered it but it’s
the family that hires a former officer from the South African
military, who uses a miraculous machine to find the child’s body on
location.

Nar. : South African Daniel Krugel
points at a location where Madeleine McCann’s body is supposed to
lie. A vast area where nothing was found.

The Turnaround in the Investigation

Nar. : The investigation uses two very
special dogs that are used by the English and North American police,
that have successfully solved over 200 cases. These include the
murder of Attracta Harron, an Irishwoman who went missing. The police
and the forensic scientists were unsuccessful in finding out what
happened to her. The investigators then brought in Eddie, one of the
two dogs that were in Portugal, that identified a carbonised piece in
the suspect’s car. That piece contained DNA from the missing woman.
The dogs that were brought in to help the investigation are great
investigators. Eddie is a dog that specialises in finding dead
victims and marking locations where dead people have been. Keela is
able to detect human blood in such tiny amounts that they elude the
investigators.In these police images, we can see
Eddie and Keela inspecting the houses where the nine British tourists
stayed, and Robert Murat’s house. The dogs only reacted (alerted)
in the apartment where the McCanns stayed. Eddie marked (alerted to)
cadaver odour in the wardrobe of the McCanns’ bedroom.

GA : In fact it was like this. The dog
that marks (alerts to) human cadaver odour marked cadaver odour in
this corner, the doors were open when the test was made, and after
walking around the parents’ bedroom, he placed his nose in here and
marked this area. So according to the expert, a cadaver was here,
either on the shelf or on the floor. Nez en l'air residus, nez en
bas, restes.

Nar. : Eddie also detected the odour of
death behind the sofa in the apartment’s living room. Keela is
brought in, and she points out a small amount of blood behind that
same sofa.

GA : At the time when the area behind
the sofa was cleaned, there is a body being transported to this
location, or it was kept here for a while. That is the indication
that exists, there was no blood here, contrary to what was found
behind the sofa, and there is the marking that a cadaver was here
[indicating the wardrobe shelves].

Martin Grime : (le maître-chien, dans l'appartement)The first thing I noticed as soon as I came in is that the dog was
very excited and as a handler I can pick up his body language and
what appeared to me is that as soon as he came in the house, he
picked up a scent, he recognized it.

Nar. : The dogs’ investigation
continues. They inspect several vehicles, and they only alert to the
car that was hired by the McCanns 23 days after Madeleine’s
disappearance. Eddie alerts that the car key and the boot had been in
contact with a dead body. Keela discovers organic traces for analysis
in the boot.

MG : (dans le garage) What we had was a
reaction from the dog over here, with his head was up in the air, he
scented cars, trying to find and then finally chose this one.

GA : The dogs’ reaction is revealing.
These dogs have never failed in over 200 cases. The dogs marked two
spots in the house: The wardrobe in the parents’ bedroom, and
behind the living room sofa.They also signaled the car, that had been
rented by the McCanns 23 days after the facts, as well as Kate’s
clothes and Madeleine’s soft toy. How was it possible to find a
soft toy with cadaver smell in a bed that was not marked by the dogs,
and with no indications of Madeleine having slept in it? The dogs’
work could hardly be more revealing.

Clip TV espagnole où Gerald MC enlève
son micro et s'en va : Two weeks ago, there was a radical change in
the investigation, tiny traces of blood were found in the apartment.
When you heard that the police had found blood in the apartment, how
did you react?

Nar. : This is the turnaround in the
investigation. The abduction theory becomes less likely than the
child’s death. The parents, friends and relatives become suspects.

OdS : The hypothesis that
little Madeleine is dead has somehow gained some consistency.

Nar. : The collected samples are sent
to an expert lab in the UK, the Forensic Science Service, in
Birmingham. The analyses’ results start being targeted by
speculation. The Times is the first newspaper to announce that some
of the preliminary results of the analyses on some of the collected
material didn’t match Maddie’s DNA, prompting a denial from the
lab.

Voix off FFS : We're just very
surprised, we have no results at all at the moment. We're not sure
what was released by the newspapers, it was the Times which started
claiming that they had had some results.

Nar. : Journalist Duarte Levy was one
of the authors of this article. He asserts that there were other
preliminary reports that identified Madeleine’s blood in the
samples, and that were put aside –DL : We, for the ‘Times’,
we – I say ‘we’ because I worked with Paulo Reis and David
Brown – the first article that we wrote was about the blood traces
that had been found on the apartment’s wall, and we published that
the blood was not Madeleine’s. It was an article that raised some
problems, in terms of the FSS’s organisation, but that didn’t
prevent us from accessing other preliminary and final reports. At a
given time, we had access to a report that was signed by more than
ten FSS professionals, which stated the existence of a correspondence
of 17 out of 19 alleles in the case of Madeleine McCann. To us, there
was more than enough data to state that this was Madeleine’s blood.

Nar. : In order to understand the
analyses that were made, we went to the Forensics Institute in
Coimbra, where presently similar analyses are carried out, using the
Low Copy Number method. When the samples were collected at the Ocean
Club apartment, and from the car that had been rented by the McCanns,
they were sent to the lab, where the samples were then prepared.
Later on, the DNA quantity that existed in the collected material was
evaluated. Because the quantity was very small, the Low Copy Number
method was used.The samples were increased, and then
the DNA markers were signaled. This method has the advantage of
working with very small amounts of DNA, but the results don’t
always allow for a clear comparison between the victim’s DNA and
the collected one. By artificially increasing the DNA quantity for
analysis, we also amplify a set of data that can be confused with the
markers.The final report that the FSS delivers
to the investigation is not conclusive. It establishes that the
collected samples may be from Madeleine McCann, but there is no
certainty. The most significant is the material that was collected
from the car that had been rented 23 days after the child’s
disappearance. The preliminary reports mention a correspondence of 15
alleles out of 19, but the problem is that the analyses demonstrate
that the material didn’t come from one sole donor, but from at
least three.;Professor Corte-Real (National Forensics Institute), who
met with the FSS experts, and saw the British scientists’ reports
and work notes, explains this issue.

Francisco Corte-Real : When those 15
alleles are included in a mix, where beyond those 15 we can have
another 30 or 40 alleles, that means that it includes biological
material from several persons. And there it can be much more
difficult, much more inconclusive, because we may have a mixture from
several persons, including hypothetically, if that happens, we may
have several persons from the same family, and that may even give us
the idea, in a way, that a certain missing person may be included,
and that is not conclusive.

Nar. : Despite the conclusions of the
FSS reports, the investigative team’s conviction is not based
exclusively on scientific evidence. A normal procedure within
criminal investigations, which is explained to us by a reputed
forensics medicine expert.

João Pinto da Costa : (expert de la police scientifique) Criminal investigation is not only one aspect. The
whole way of being, in terms of the suspect’s attitudes and
behaviour, are fundamental, as fundamental as the biological analysis
of blood, urine or any other situation. There are other elements that
allow for corroboration.

Nar. : The McCanns are summoned for
deposition at the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão. During that
interrogation, they are made arguidos. Kate McCann refuses to answer
all of the questions, and Gerald McCann repeatedly denies the
investigators’ conclusions, defending his innocence, and his
wife’s.

Carlos Pinto de Abreu : (McCanns’
Portuguese laywer) Today, Kate and Gerry McCann were made arguidos.GA : Their behaviour was a distant
behaviour. For example, when they, especially Gerald McCann, when
they are shown the dogs’ movie, he didn’t even want to look at
the television, saying that it had no value, and that it didn’t
show proof of his daughter’s death, and that to him, his daughter
was alive.

Nar. : When the McCanns leave the
Polícia Judiciária, the Portuguese public opinion starts to turn
against them. The Portuguese and British investigators are now
convinced that the little girl was the victim of an accident. She
died in the apartment and someone made the body disappear.

GA : That was assumed by the entire
investigation team, which consisted of Portuguese and English people.
In September 2007, that is the major conclusion drawn from the
investigation. I remind you, concerning that issue of inconclusive
tests, that there is an ongoing case in the USA, involving a mother
and a missing three-year-old, where there is also cadaver odour in
the car boot, and an incomplete DNA profile of the child, and the
mother has been arrested for trial, or has already been tried.

Justine McGuinness : (porte-parole des MC) It was suggested
that blood had been found in the boot of the car they hired 25 days
after and it has been put to Kate and it has been suggested that Kate
is somehow connected with the death of her daughter, which is really
ridiculous.

Nar. : The investigation’s change of
direction prompts the McCanns’ return to the UK. The family, that
had always refused to abandon Portugal without clarifying their
daughter’s disappearance, decides to return home. The images of the
McCann family’s return go around the world. When he sees this image
of Gerald McCann carrying one of the twins, Irishman Martin Smith
says he recognises in the stance and the manner of holding the child,
the man whom he crossed on the night that Madeleine disappeared. He
goes to the local police, and gives a statement.

Voice Off : It was exactly the same
manner and appearance of the man that he saw on the night that Maddie
disappeared.

Nar. : Clarence Mitchell, the McCann
family’s representative, a former spokesman for English prime
minister Gordon Brown, pushes all suspicions aside – Kate McCann’s
diary, which was accessed by the investigation, is clear about the
importance of such political support. Gordon Brown phones the couple
several times, as the diary shows on the 23rd of May.

Clarence Mitchell : (reading) During
that time I saw or heard nothing that gave me cause for concern or
any suspicion. All I witnessed was a lovely family that had been
plunged into a dreadful situation and two parents trying to cope
with their loss. To suggest that they somehow harmed Madeleine
accidentally or otherwise is as ludicrous as it is nonsensical.
Indeed it would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.

Nar. : The diary of Kate MC to which
the investigation had access is clear about the importance of the
political supports. Gordon Browns contacts the couple various times
as registered in the page of May 23.

The Disarmed Investigation

Nar. : The McCann case has always
worried both countries’ political authorities, even leading Prime
Minister Gordon Brown to speak about it with his counterpart, José
Sócrates, during the Lisbon summit.

The British press repeatedly attacked
the Portuguese investigation. Following a reply from Gonçalo Amaral
to a former British detective, in an interview to Diário de
Notícias, the Polícia Judiciária’s national director dismissed
the investigation’s coordinator, with the Justice Minister’s
support.

Alípio Ribeiro : (PJ’s National
Director) I’m not going to comment on that matter.

Journalist : But you confirm that he was replaced in the case?AR : Yes. Substituted as the leader.J. : Why?AR : I can’t comment on that now.J. : Was it because of the statements that were published today?Alberto Costa : (Justice Minister) It’s an act that belongs to the national director of the Polícia Judiciária, that I approve.J. : Did you influence this dismissal?AC : I don’t want to say anything further about this matter.

Narr : Gonçalo Amaral is sent back to
the headquarters in Faro, and forced to abandon the McCann case
investigation.

GA : Before I left, someone came to me,
I’m not saying who, with a speech about investigations that don’t
end, investigations that don’t end in the way that we desire, that
do not succeed, and that if this investigation was archived, or if
the investigation was dropped, nobody would question it much, or
raise any problems about it. Ces demi-appartés en disent toujours trop ou pas assez. Ici on pense irrésistiblement à l'allusion du rapport de classement à La promesse de F. Dürrenmatt, manifestement à l'intention de l'ex-inspecteur

Nar. : Paulo Rebelo is nominated to
direct the investigation. He hurries to visit Aldeia da Luz, and to
observe the locations where Madeleine McCann disappeared from,
showing his intention to carry out the process until its end. A set
of rogatory letters are sent to the UK for the interrogation of the
witnesses in the process. There is an attempt to schedule a
reconstruction. Some witnesses are never questioned again in
Portugal, like the Smith family, who said they saw Gerald McCann
carrying a child in his arms, towards the sea, at around 10 p.m. on
the 3rd of May 2007.

The witness who lived near the McCanns’
second home, in Aldeia da Luz, who says she witnessed an uncommon
fact about the McCanns’ hire car, where the dogs detected cadaver
odour and remains that may belong to Maddie, was not heard, either.
This neighbour has signed a document authorising the broadcast of her
deposition that identifies her, but fearing threats and pressures,
she doesn’t show her face.

GA : This is an interesting matter,
when I left the Criminal Investigation Department in Portimão, in
October 2007, nothing was known about this vehicle, about this issue
of the open car boot. We knew that inside the vehicle cadaver odour
and bodily fluids had been found, where Madeleine McCann’s DNA
profile was extracted from, with 15 alleles. Months later, there is a
jurist, who lives nearby, who came to report that after the McCanns
arrived at this villa, they saw the car boot open from then on.

Neighbour lady : I drive down this
street every day to turn my car around at that end, and every time
that I passed the house, and I looked at the car, and the car always
had an open boot door, day or night. I often passed at night, and
always verified it. It was a fact, I reported it, and that was it.

GA : It’s important to report the
following: that lady, that jurist, was never heard at the Polícia
Judiciária because her deposition was not considered to be relevant,
which is strange. While she was not heard, while a rogatory letter
was sent to England, relatives of Gerald and Kate McCann came out to
say that they had transported, inside this car boot, food from the
supermarket, namely a meat package that leaked blood.

Nar. : The great question is how the
family heard about the witness, despite the fact that she was not
heard by the PJ, and tried to reply to the observed facts. Only a few
months later, the investigation is closed. Gonçalo Amaral resigns
from the police, writes a book about the case and accepts to return
to 5A at the Ocean Club, to demonstrate his conviction that Madeleine
McCann died inside this apartment on the 3rd of May 2007.

The family’s spokesman accuses him of
being an opportunist, who is merely interested in making money.

CM : (voice off) He is
publishing a book to make money and all of this publicity surounding
it is being watched, every thing, every word he said has been studied
very closely by lawyers for Kate and Gerry. He is doing this to make
money out of Madeleine's situation and if he has clues in the book,
he should have acted on those when he was an officer involved in the
case to find Madeleine.

GA : Contrary to what Mr Clarence
Mitchell says, I used my knowledge in the investigation, and thus can
state with all certainty that Madeleine was not abducted. Just verify
the location of the facts, like we are going to, right away.

Final Evidence

Nar. : With the help from one of the
major experts from the Scientific Police, who worked for the Polícia
Judiciária, Alexandre Simas, Gonçalo Amaral intends to prove,
first, that it was impossible for the child to be abducted, starting
by demonstrating that the indications prove that the apartment’s
window and door were not forced.

GA : How does one open a door like
this, without the key?

Alexandre Simas : (Former PJ expert) This type of apartment door, normally there are only
three possibilities: to extract the lock’s cannon, which didn’t
happen, or it would have been reported; a false key, a copy or one
that was used without permission; or using a malleable material, as
long as it’s not locked, it’s introduced, and it makes the lock
go back inside. But when it goes in, even if it did, it would hit
this screw. If it hits the screw, no matter how much I force it, it
doesn’t jump to open the lock for me.

Nar. : If the door wasn’t opened
without a key, the window doesn’t bear any traces of having been
forced, either.

AS : These windows have a very good
characteristic to check if they were forced or not. Being made of
lacquered aluminium, any screwdriver, any instrument that is used to
make the lock jump, immediately leaves a mark. What we can see here,
there is no break-in, the mark that is there belongs to the lock
itself as it rotates, sometimes one does this with the lock in place,
and it hits there. So, to open this window, all we have to do is
this. To close it, it’s impossible, because either one has a magnet
on his fingers to pull the window…

Nar. : Another important fact is
revealed by the fingerprints that are left on the bedroom window,
which the McCanns insist they left closed, and is supposedly found
open when the mother notices her daughter is missing. The only
fingerprints that are found belong to Kate McCann, and reveal that
they were made by opening the window.

GA : These three indications mean that
there was no abduction, and that is proved. No abductor entered
apartment 5A, through the door or through the window.

Nar. : Finally, it was impossible for
anyone to leave with the child through the window on his own, without
supporting himself on the bed, and leaving traces of abrasion on the
window.

AS : If I carry a child in my arms, a
package, in this case, the window is already open, I have to walk
through here, and then I have to place my feet here, I can’t…

Nar. : We tried to prove this
difficulty, taking a child through the window, keeping everything the
way it was found: the beds, without a trace of being stepped on, and
no signs of abrasion on the window sill. It seems to be practically
impossible for one single abductor, like the one that Jane Tanner
saw, carrying the child on the street.

Let’s review: First, the front door
and the window were not forced. Second, the window was opened by the
mother. Third, it’s impossible for a lone abductor to carry out the
child without leaving traces on the beds and on the window.

GA : Adding this to the traces that
were detected by the dogs, and the sighting that was made by the
Smiths, we have a completely different probable scenario. Madeleine
McCann died in apartment 5A, and her body was concealed.

Nar. : What do these leads tell us?
What means that which the dogs detected, and what can be established
about what happened on the 3rd of May 2007?

GA : It is behind the sofa, in front
of the middle section of the window, that cadaver odour and human
blood with Madeleine McCann’s profile is traced. It’s the only
place inside the apartment where the findings coincide: human cadaver
odour and blood. So, within a policeman’s logic, this is where
death may have taken place.

Nar. : What happened to Maddie? There
is an hypothesis that can explain all known clues. The child woke up
at night, heard her father talking below the living room window,
climbed on the sofa, fell and hit her head. The fall, and the
possible use of Calpol on the children, by the parents, to keep them
asleep while they dined, may have provoked Madeleine’s death.

The habit of using Calpol on the
children was confirmed by Kate’s father. Later, a man, whom the
Smiths identified as Gerald McCann, carried the child towards the
beach.

GA : What I know tells me that
Madeleine McCann died in apartment 5A on the 3rd of May 2007. I am
certain that this truth will be established some day. The
investigation was brutally interrupted, and a political and hurried
archiving took place. There are some people who hide the truth, but
sooner or later the varnish will crack and the revelations will
appear. Only then will there be justice for Madeleine McCann.

Nar. : The mystery persists. The former
inspector believes that some day, the truth will be known. For the
time being, all we know is that on the 3rd of May 2007, Madeleine
McCann disappeared in Praia da Luz. She was three years old, and she
was a happy child.